1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing sausages or the like, and more particularly to an apparatus for manufacturing sausages or the like having a rotary member driving device which is not affected by the entrance thereinto of a material, water, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, apparatus for manufacturing products (e.g., wieners) have been known in which a material such as a meat emulsion is discharged from a nozzle and is filled into a casing, and the casing is twisted to link the individual portions filled with the material into the form of a chain. (Refer to Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 27509/1965 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,668) and 13329/1989 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,796).)
With the conventionally known apparatus for manufacturing sausages or the like, in order to give twists to a casing stuffed with a material such as a meat emulsion, the casing is held by a chuck and rotation is imparted to the casing. The apparatus is constructed such that a part of a rotation imparting mechanism for imparting rotation to the casing is immersed in lubricating oil in a hermetically sealed housing. (Hereafter, the lubricating structure of this type will be referred to as the wet-type lubricating structure.)
With reference to FIG. 14, a detailed description will be given of an example of an apparatus for manufacturing a chain of wieners or the like having the above-described known wet-type lubricating structure. The structure described here is the lubricating structure of a chuck rotating mechanism disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Publication No. 13329/1989 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,796), and it can be understood that the lubricating structure of the chuck rotating mechanism of the aforementioned Japanese Patent Publication No. 27509/1965 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,668) is basically identical with the same.
A chuck 101 is inserted in a cylindrical shaft portion 103 of an external gear 102 which is rotatively driven by meshing with another external gear 104. The external gears 102 and 104 are accommodated in a sealed housing 105, lubricating oil being filled in the housing 105. A rotating shaft 106 of the external gear 104 is rotatively driven by a sprocket 107 provided at its end. In this example, the sprocket 107 is rotatively driven by a motor 108, and its rotation imparting mechanism is constituted by a combination of belts 109 and 110, a bevel gear 111, and a chain 112.
The following drawbacks have been experienced with the above-described known chuck rotating mechanism.
The operation of stuffing the casing with a material is generally carried out as follows: First, a piston rod 114 of a cylinder 113 advances, and a nozzle 115 passes through an unillustrated block for slidably accommodating the nozzle and having a port communicating with a meat stuffing pump 116, allowing a casing (not shown) to be fitted over an outer periphery of the nozzle 115. At the same time, a tip of the nozzle 115 is partially inserted into the chuck 101. As the meat emulsion or the like, which is a material, is discharged from the tip of the nozzle 115, the discharged material is filled in the casing. Since the outside diameter of the casing stuffed with the material is constricted by a linking device 117 while the casing rotates together with the chuck 101, twists are produced at that portion, thereby allowing sausages or the like to be produced in the form of a chain of linked products. Since a detailed mechanism of stuffing and twisting is described in detail in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Publication No. 27509/1965 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,668), a description thereof will be omitted herein.
Since the housing 105 is provided with the external gears 102 and 104, bearings and oil seals are provided for these gears. (Detailed illustrations are omitted herein.)
With the above-described known chuck rotating mechanism, there frequently occur cases where the material (the meat emulsion or the like) discharged from the nozzle 115 leaks from the nozzle (the reason: when the material is charged into the casing from the nozzle 115, after the casing has been finally stuffed with the material, the material is still discharged from the nozzle 115 by residual pressure although the casing has gone), and this leaked material enters the housing 105 by overriding the oil seal. In addition, water can frequently enter the housing 105 at the time of cleaning with water. Consequently, these entering objects are gradually accumulated inside the housing 105, thereby causing deterioration of the lubricating oil.
With the above-described known manufacturing apparatus, since cases of damage caused to the casings by the linking device are practically nil, the entrance of the aforementioned objects into the housing 105 from the oil seal on the linking device side presents no problem.
In addition, the housing 105 is provided with bearings and oil seals, as described above, and the bearings and oil seals are contaminated by the entering objects, thereby resulting in rusting, abnormal wear, partial wear, and breakage. Since such rusting, abnormal wear, partial wear, and breakage also occur at the meshing portions of the external gears 102, 104, with the conventional chuck rotating mechanism, there have been technical problems in that it suffers a drawback in terms of durability and that parts replacement must be conducted frequently. In particular, in the apparatus using the conventional sealed housing 105, it takes much time and trouble to disassemble the housing 105 and replace the internal parts and lubricating oil.